Farms raising ostriches are becoming popular in Brazil lately, but as an exotic species, there is little information regarding diseases that affect these animals in our environment. A five-month-old ostrich had cough, anorexia, weight loss, mild dispneia, normal body temperature, and died within 8 days from the beginning of the clinical signs. Grossly, there were multiple nodules in the lung and air sacs. Histopathologically, a multifocal necrotizing and granulomatous pneumonia with intralesional radiating septated and branching hyphae with morphological features of Aspergillus sp. was observed. In the air sacs, in addition to the hyphae and adjacent inflammatory reaction, there were multiple mycelia with conidiophores on the inner surface. Aspergillus fumigatus was isolated from the affected tissues. Based on the histopathological and mycological findings, a severe mycotic pneumonia and air sacculitis caused by Aspergillus fumigatus was diagnosed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of aspergillosis in an ostrich in Brazil.
ostrich; Aspergillus fumigatus; pneumonia; air sacculitis
